psychopathology AO1

Question 1

what is failure to function adequately

Answer 1

not being able to cope with the demands of everyday life. abnormal behaviour that interferes with everyday life e.g. being unable to maintain personal hygiene. Rosenhan and Seligman found signs for someone failing to function adequately (maladaptive behaviour, illrational behaviour or behaviour that is a risk to themselves or others)

Question 2

clinical charecteristics of phobia

Answer 2

panic and avoidance (behavioural)
persistent irrational beliefs and selective attention (cognative)
fear and anxiety (emotional)

Question 3

what does the two-process model suggest

Answer 3

phobias are learnt behaviour

Question 4

example of failure to function adequately

Answer 4

if someone has depression they may not be able to keep a job, maintain personal hygiene or get out of bed. therefore showing they have an inability to cope with the everyday demands of life.

Question 5

what is the cognative strategy in treating depression

Answer 5

cognative strategy = empirical disbuting where the therapist will ask for evidence to support the negative thought, this can be done by giving a patient a diary to test the reality of their beliefs and challenge them to prove them wrong.

Question 6

cognative charecteristics of depression

Answer 6

poor levels of concentration
negative schema
black and white thinking

Question 7

what is behavioural aim

Answer 7

behavioural aim = putting more effective behaviours into place

Question 8

Explain Ellis’ cognative approch to depression - Ellis’s ABC model

Answer 8

ellis empasizes that irrational thoughts interfere with us being happy

Question 9

what are the 3 stages to ellis’s ABC model

Answer 9

A = there is an ACTIVATING EVENT that is an external event that can trigger
B - BELIEFS. ellis identified a range of beliefs that’re irrational, for example that we must always achieve perfection (musterbation) and that the world is fair (utopianism). when an activating event triggers an irrational belief there are emotional
C = CONSEQUENCES such as depression.

Question 10

what is cognative aim

Answer 10

cognative aim = the therapsit and client will work together to identify any irrational or negative thoughts and will challenge them to turn them into more rational and positive thinking.

Question 11

what is behavioural strategy

Answer 11

behavioural strategy = behavioural activation is used to encourage the depressed individual to be more active. patients are encouraged to do activities they once enjoyed to help improve positive thoughts.

Question 12

systematic desensitisation

Answer 12

1. relaxation = the patient is taught how to relax using muscle relaxation and breathing exersizes
2. hierarchy of anxiety = the patient and researcher create a graded scale with the phobic stimulus that scares them the most to the phobic stimulus that scares them the least
3. gradual exposure = the patient is exposed to the least feared stimulus and is encouraged to put into practice their relaxation techniques (reciprocal inhibition). the patient then works their way up the graded scale, only moving up a step after they have done the one before and are fully relaxed.
4. treatment = patient is treated when they are able to move through the hierarchy without anxiety.

Question 13

the biological explanation to OCD

Answer 13

argues that OCD is due to biological factors inside the body. OCD tends to run in families and would suggest a genetic predisposition to OCD being inherited. It would argue that OCD is due to the inheritance of maladaptive genes as OCD is polygenetic. the candidate genes that make an individual vulnerable to developing OCD are the SERT gene and the COMT gene.

Question 14

what are the 4 stages to treating depression through Cognative Behavioural Therapy

Answer 14

cognative aim
cognative strategy
behavioural aim
behavioural strategy

Question 15

who did research into the two-process model

Answer 15

Watson and Raynor on Little Albert

Question 16

what are the 3 stages of becks negative triad

Answer 16

1. negative views about the world
2. negative views about self
3. negative views about the future

Question 17

the neuroanatomical explanation to OCD

Answer 17

OCD is linked to impaired decision making due to abnormal functioning of the brain. OCD is linked to abnormal functioning in the frontal lobe which is linked to decision making, linking to obsessions in OCD as the individual is unaware the process is irrational. The parahippocampal gyrus is associated with processing unpleasant emotions which functions abnormally in people who have OCD

Question 18

what does the COMT gene do

Answer 18

linked to the regulation of dopamine which has been found to be more common in people with OCD. increased levels of dopamine is linked with compulsions in OCD.

Question 19

the neural explanation to OCD

Answer 19

says OCD is due to an imbalance of neurotransmitters, specifically low levels of seretonin. A mutation in the SERT gene causes seretonin to be recycled too quickly from the pre to the post synapic neuron. low levels of seretonin activity can lead to anxiety which is linked to obsessions in OCD

Question 20

what does the SERT gene do

Answer 20

is linked to the transportation seretonin which keeps a stable mood, but if mutated it increases anxiety which is linked to the OCD symptom of obsessions

Question 21

what is the two-process model

Answer 21

classical conditioning - learning to associate something we have no fear of initially with something that triggers a fear response.
operant conditioning - maintaining the phobia through avoidance as they’re negatively reainforced by reducing the anxiety they feel

Question 22

emotional charecteristics of depression

Answer 22

lowered mood
anger

Question 23

what did Watson and Raynor do

Answer 23

at the beginning albert was not afraid of rats
whenever a rat was presented near albert the researher made a loud and frightening noise by banging an iron bar close to his ear
this noise is the UCS which leads to the UCR of fear
when the rat was presented with the UCR albert began to associate them
the rat become the CS because of the CR of fear in albert
this fear could be generalised further to a similar object such as a beard on a santa mask

Question 24

what is a phobia

Answer 24

when someone experiences extreme anxiety or fear that’s activated by an object, place or situation. the fear of the phobic stimulus is irrational and often out of proportion to any real danger.

Question 25

clinical charecteristics to OCD

Answer 25

emotional = anxiety
cognative = obsessions and awareness and hypervigilance
behavioral = avoidance and compulstions

Question 26

Explain Beck’s cognative approch to depression - Beck’s Negative Triad

Answer 26

he states that consistent nagtive thinking can make someone vulnerable to depression. this can be due to faulty information processing where people attend to all the negative aspects of a situation (black and white thinking.)

Question 27

what is flooding

Answer 27

the patient has sudden exposure to the most feared phobic stimulus and must stay in its presence. they will experience high levels of anxiety as they are unable to avoid the stimulus. they remain exposed to the stimulus until the anxiety response is exhausted, this usually lasts 2-3 hours. this is called extinction as the patient learns the phobia stimulus is harmless.

Question 28

behavioural charecteristics of depression

Answer 28

change in activity levels
distruption to sleep
disruption to eating behaviour